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Beginner to Advanced Computing and Logic Building

Electronic Voting: Application of Unique/Distinct Values

Explore how to build an electronic voting system using arrays to count and analyze votes for multiple candidates. Learn to read voting data from a file, compute vote totals, display results with bar graphs, and sort candidates by votes. This lesson teaches practical techniques for processing data sets, developing algorithms for counting and sorting, and managing program flow through modular functions.

We'll cover the following...

Electronic voting

The election took place in a parliament with nine candidates competing with each other. Make a program to check who wins the election. Read the data from the Votes.txt file (as given in the playground).

The file format is the following:

9 Total number of candidates, like here 9 means 9 candidates competing
1. Name 1
2. Name 2
3. .
4. .
9. Name 9

50 Total votes
1 2 3 2 7 9 1 4 ... Total 50 votes, where each number represents a vote v cast for the vth candidate.

Sample Output

 Candidate Name     Votes

1. Bernie      14
2. Donald      6
3. Nawaz       5
4. Benazir     6
5. Vladimir    5
6. Justin      5
7. Jonathan    2
8. Nehru       6
9. Bilawal     11

The compiled result
Bernie    :   **************  14 votes
Donald    :   ******  6 votes
Nawaz     :   *****  5 votes
Benazir   :   ******  6 votes
Vladimir  :   *****  5 votes
Justin    :   *****  5 votes
Jonathan  :   **  2 votes
Nehru     :   ******  6 votes
Bilawal   :   ***********  11 votes

Bernie won the election.
--------------------------------------
The compiled sorted result
Bernie    :   **************  14 votes
Bilawal   :   ***********  11 votes
Donald    :   ******  6 votes
Benazir   :   ******  6 votes
Nehru     :   ******  6 votes
Nawaz     :   *****  5 votes
Vladimir  :   *****  5 votes
Justin    :   *****  5 votes
Jonathan  :   **  2 votes

Bernie won the election.

Implementation details

Memory requirement:

We need the following variables in our program:

int voters; // No of voters
int noc = 9;  // No of candidates
int vote_cast[voters];  // To store every vote read from file
int candidates_votes[noc] = {0};   // To store the vote-count of every candidate
           // candidates_votes[1] holds the votes of candidate 1
           // candidates_votes[2] holds the votes of candidate 2
           // ....
           // candidates_votes[9] holds the votes of candidate 9


string candidate_names[noc];  // to store the name of every candidate

Below is the flow of the program.

Step 1: Reading the voting file

Reading involves loading inside vote_cast[] along with the size voters and reading the number of candidates noc and their names candidates_name[], hence the following prototype:

void read(int &voters, int vote_cast[], int &no_of_candidates, string candidate_names[]);

Instruction: Write your implementation of the above function in the editor at the end of the lesson.

Step 2: Computing the results

For compiling, we must iterate through all the votes, i.e., vote_cast[] and increment the count of every candidate respectively. For this we should implement the following function:

void computeResult(int candidates_votes[], int vote_cast[], int voters);

Instruction: Write your implementation of the above function in the editor at the end of the lesson.

Step 3: Displaying the results

To display every candidate’s name and votes, we should make the following function:

void displayResult(int candidates_votes[], string candidate_names[], int noc);

Instruction: Write your implementation of the above function in the editor at the end of the lesson.

Step 4: Plotting the results

Display the entire result with a bar graph horizontally (made up of stars such that every candidate’s name must be followed by the *s followed by the exact count.

void resultPlot(int candidates_votes[], string candidate_names[], int noc);

Instruction: Write your implementation of the above function in the editor at the end of the lesson.

Step 5: Sorting the result (using the attained votes)

In this step, we would like to sort by attained votes and based on that, sort the names as well.

  • Hint: The comparison needs to be done based on votes, and swapping needs to be done on both candidate_name[] and candidates_votes[].

Instruction: Write your implementation of the above functions here, and change the Voting.txt file in whatever way you want.

C++
#include<iostream>
#include<fstream>
#include<string>
#include<iomanip>
using namespace std;
#define capacity 100
void read(int &voters, int vote_cast[ ], int &no_of_candidates, string candidate_names[]);
void computeResult(int candidates_votes[ ], int vote_cast[ ], int voters);
void displayResult(int parties[ ], string candidate_names[ ], int noc);
void resultPlot(int candidates_votes[ ], string candidate_names[ ], int noc);
int sortCandidates(int candidates_votes[], string candidate_names[], int noc);
int main()
{
	// Write your code here
	return 0;
}
void read(int &voters, int vote_cast[ ], int &noc, string candidate_names[])
{
    // Write your code here
}
void computeResult(int candidates_votes[ ], int vote_cast[ ], int voters)
{
	// Write your code here
}
void displayResult(int candidates_votes[ ], string candidate_names[ ], int noc)
{
	// Write your code here
}
void resultPlot(int candidates_votes[ ], string candidate_names[ ], int noc)
{
	// Write your code here
}
int sortCandidates(int candidates_votes[], string candidate_names[], int noc)
{
   // Write your code here
}

Write down the main flow of the program and complete the main() function first. Step by step, make all the functions and test them one by one.